When meat is cooked, it is often susceptible to becoming dry and tough. Particularly, when a large piece of meat that does not have a uniform cooking time, such as a turkey, is cooked, certain portions of the meat can become overcooked and dry. If a turkey is cooked for an extended period of time to ensure that all portions are thoroughly cooked, it is even more likely that the portions of the meat that cook more quickly will become dry and tough. Generally, with a turkey, the breast meat dries out before the dark meat is completely cooked.
Methods have been used to prevent the breast meat of a turkey from drying out during the cooking process. For example, turkeys have been soaked in a brine solution before cooking. Other methods that have been used to prevent turkeys from drying out include basting during the cooking process. Other methods of cooking a turkey with moist breast meat include using specialty equipment such as deep flying or cooking on a rotisserie.
Those of skill in the art know that to have a tender, juicy and moist breast meat, the breast needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of no greater than approximately 164° F. (73° Celsius). The legs of the turkey or other bird, however, must be cooked at a temperature of from approximately 175° F. (79° Celsius) to approximately 180° F. (82° Celsius) or else the meat in the legs will be pink and chewy. Accordingly, it is desirable to cook the legs of a turkey at a faster rate than the breast.
However, when a turkey is cooked in the traditional manner in an oven with the breast side up, the breast is cooked at a faster rate than the legs. The breast is closest to the roof of the oven, which is hotter than the rest of the oven. Additionally, when the turkey is cooked with the breast side up, gravity pulls the turkey juices away from the breast. In this manner, when the legs of the turkey are fully cooked, often the breast is overcooked and dry.
Therefore, those of skill in the art have attempted to cook a turkey with the breast side down to keep moisture in the breast during cooking. However, when this method is employed, it is often desirable to flip the turkey over during the cooking process so that the breast side is facing up in the latter part of the cooking process. Cooking a turkey with the breast side up for a portion of the cooking time (preferably the latter portion) allows the skin of the turkey to become brown and crisp.
Flipping over or inverting a turkey during the cooking process presents challenges to those of skill in the art. Specifically, turkeys are often large and slippery and, because they are cooked at such high temperatures, the turkeys and the pans in which they are cooked reach extremely high temperatures during the cooking process. Accordingly, it is often difficult and can be dangerous for one to handle a turkey in such a manner as is required to flip a turkey over.
Examples of Conventional Roasting Racks:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,102,097 titled “Cooking Apparatus” issued to Sherman Dec. 13, 1937 is particularly applicable to apparatus in which cooking is accomplished by electrically generated heat, and provides an improved cooking apparatus in which heat may be applied either to two sides of an article to be cooked or to a single side thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,335 titled “Device for Cooking Meat and the Like” issued to Rodrigue Nov. 30, 1965 provides meat racks into which can be conveniently and easily placed the meat to be cooked and which are of such a construction that the meat can be quickly, safely and easily turned.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,889 titled “Turkey Turner” issued to Young et al. Dec. 26, 1967 describes a device which facilitates turning meat and helps the inexperienced cook to produce even roasts and grills with a minimum of effort.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,776 titled “Wire Roasting Frame” issued to Young et al. Mar. 2, 1971 wherein a pair of brackets is integrally secured about a roast to aid in handling. One of the brackets includes at least one hook integral with the bracket body for cooperating with parts on the other bracket to temporarily secure the brackets to one another about the roast, permitting the entire assembly to be handled as a unit.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D303,910 titled “Roasting basket” issued to Sjoberg Oct. 10, 1989 describes the ornamental design for a roasting basket.
Examples of Conventional Rotisseries:
U.S. Pat. No. 553,363 titled “Roasting Pan” issued to Sickles Jan. 21, 1896 will render the cooking of meats more simple and improve the action of the heat thereon by enabling the cook to bring all parts of the meat in proper relative position to the heating-surfaces without having to remove such meat from the pan and also to hold said meat in the most desirable shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,084,618 titled “Food Holder” issued to Dieterich Apr. 9, 1963 relates generally to rotisserie cooking, and particularly to a grip for clamp for holding food while it is being turned before the heat, as if it were on a spit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,961 titled “Rotary cooking device” issued to Case Dec. 2, 1975 wherein a rotary cooking device having two separate hub elements to be mounted for rotation about a common axis and adjustably carrying two grill parts for engaging opposite sides of a roast or other piece of meat to clamp the meat between the grills.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,646 titled “Rotatable grill” issued to Kruper Feb. 1, 1977 wherein a rotatable grill for demountably retaining food objects consisting of a first basket half and a second basket half which is similar in size to the first basket half and a pivotable bracket means for adjustably joining the ends of the bracket halves to form a closed basket at their longitudinal sides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,763 titled “Meat Roaster” issued to Beller Apr. 17, 1984 wherein a meat roaster has a horizontal spit basket comprising confronting sets of grate fingers for gripping meat items to be roasted and means for adjusting the separation between the potentially telescoping sets which allows the user to tighten the grip on the shrinking meat during roasting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,153 titled “Meat roasting device” issued to Su May 26, 1998 wherein a meat roasting device having an automatically rotated barbecue grill mainly comprising: a furnace frame, a barbecue grill, and a driving device, wherein said driving device is fixed on the support plate of the furnace frame, and is engageable with a barbecue grill having an elastic clamping force by a driving bushing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,577 titled “Rotisserie basket for grills” issued to Harneit Feb. 19, 2002 describes a rotisserie basket for cooking whole chickens, roasts, etc. without the need to pierce the food with a spit or rod as in other, conventional rotisserie baskets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,373 titled “Rotisserie cradle” issued to Bargman Apr. 9, 2002 describes a rotisserie cradle including a trough shaped cradle constructed entirely of a rod framework to be lighter, easier to clean, and cheaper to manufacture, with food hold down grates positionable by swing arms pivoted to the inside of the cradle framework so as to allow manually settable positioning of the grates against the food to hold the same against the inside of the cradle framework.
Examples of Other Conventional Food-Holding Devices:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,217 titled “Multipurpose cooking rack” issued to Koziol Jul. 18, 1989 wherein a multipurpose cooking rack which can support large sizes of meat when in one position and smaller sizes of food items such as meat and vegetables when in an inverted position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,235 titled “Device for roasting poultry” issued to Anselmo Aug. 11, 1998 wherein the invention is a device for roasting a poultry item having a breast portion to be faced downward, first and second leg portions, and first and second wing portions.
United States Patent Application Publication 2006/0196367 “Roasting apparatus” issued to Osterman Sep. 7, 2006 wherein a roasting apparatus for cooking meat in an oven includes a rod, a pair of hooks and a frame.
Each of the above devices has one or more shortcomings. There is thus a continuing, ongoing need for an apparatus that can be used to manually flip over a turkey (or other food item) between stages of the cooking process. Preferably, such an apparatus allows the turkey to be cooked initially with the breast side down and then with the breast side up during the latter stages of the cooking process.